St. Rose of Lima

Objet d'Artagnan

I am just your typical ex long-haired (as of 2005) Christian (as of 1998) Catholic (as of 2006) who gets paid to harass people (Sales Rep), and who craving even more public embarrassment, decided to start a blog . . .plus what guy doesn't want to say "blog"? BLOG, BLOG, Bloggin' Blog!
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Anyhoo, this is just a little exercise to help me avoid exercise...and to maybe learn to write a tad better along the way.
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These wacky blog Posts are just my own thoughts, and I alone should be judged, and or condemned, by the content.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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"For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ,"In him are hidden all the treasuresof the wisdom and knowledge of God."The soul cannot enter into these treasures, nor attainthem, unless it first crosses into and enters the thicket ofsuffering, enduring interior and exterior labors, and unless itfirst receives from God very many blessings in the intellectand in the senses, and has undergone long spiritual training.

The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdomis the cross; because it is a narrow gate, while many seek thejoys that can be gained through it, it is given to few todesire to pass through it."St. John of the Cross .

Monday, February 22, 2010

.A little bummed that today's reading from Matthew was during a daily mass, instead of a Sunday mass. Daily mass is usually already full of folks who are in love with Christ and His church, and it's those weekend folk who need lil' lessons on why the church is the "Church", 'cause just talking with an average cradle Catholic will show ya that Protestants don't have the market cornered on ignorance of Church teaching.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

There is this new movement in the church of "Catholics Come Home", but we need to further that by "Catholics don't Leave", which will happen if the Church (Laity and Religious) work harder at explaining/defending what we know to be True. I personally wish that the homily would be more of a mini-Catechism to rouse a intellectual body nourished in Spirit and Truth.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Thursday, February 18, 2010

.A Protestant friend once asked me"How is Praise & Worship song like a Machine gun?""um, How?" I says"Fifty Rounds without stopping" (O:

I must admit two things, with the first being I find Praise & Worship music rather boring and unfitting of music to glorify God (and I don't really dig that it's creeping into the Catholic church too). My second confession is that I now say a heck of a lot of Rosaries per day.

With the recent addition of pain associated with my illness, as well as my new extended drive time, it is safe to say I average about 3-4 rosaries per day (Saying a Rosary does not magically make the pain stop, but helps me focus on the One who endured greater pain . . .and for me). Naturally this lead me to ponder on that silly "Vain and Repetitious" bromide that reveals the bigotry and ignorance of our Protestant brethren when used, reminding me of the 20 minutes of Praise & Worship music I had to endure before service would start, back when I was an evangelical Christian.

While I do sometimes drift off while saying a rosary , especially at bedtime, I do try to meditate on each mystery as I go through my beads (which is why I prefer the audio version of the Scriptural rosary while driving).

P&W tunes are usually aimed at stirring up an emotion rather than pondering on any deep truth, and in that show that they are aimed at the people in the church, not the Creator of the Church. Worse are the comments I have overheard of folks preffering this song to that, or that leader to this, . . . .and don't get me started on Worship leaders who allow the audience to applaud and praise them (I did see a leader once who did chastise the clappers while reminding them who they were suppose to be worshiping).

This my friends, is Vanity upon vanity, and that the modern churches allow this American Idol style liturgy, is one of the many reasons I knew I was finally in Christ's church when I became Catholic.

How is saying the Holy Rosary or Devine Mercy chaplet considered vain and repetitious prayer (especially as both are prayers for others), but singing songs like "Shout to the Lord" or "Awesome God" for 20 verses not?

Ugh! this of course just another effective tactic by our friend Screwtape, to help keep God's people apart, which shows how much we should, and need to be together!

Sadly, so many folks ignore the first part, or worse, they actually call their security seeking, career chasing, society pleasing way of life "God's will". . . and in the end will find a great deficit in their heavenly account (if they ever bothered to open one in the first place)..

Thursday, February 4, 2010

His above comment is possibly correct, but misleading, as it supposes that all these people are leaving Christianity, when it seems more and more thinking folks are leaving "a" church, and finding the CHURCH. For me, it seems that one of the chief similarities between myself and my fellow Tiber River swim club members is that we "thought" our way into Christ's church . . .the other similarity is that most of us wanted to stay on the shore, but heeded His voice which beckoned us "swim"..